Allied Faction Bible
Who Are They * The Allies are a European-based intergovernmental organization based around shared political, scientific, philosophical and military goals. * In absolute terms, the Allies are the largest and most powerful faction in the setting. They can draw upon a huge industrial base, a huge population, deep scientific knowledge, and considerable goodwill amoung the vast majority of their members, especially former developing nations that feel like they owe something back. Given the political will and mobilisation time, they could crush any other faction; the only reason the Soviet Union ever stood a chance is a combination of advantage of initative and the geological seperation of Allied powers. * In their early history, the Allies were primarily composed of European nations directly threatened by Stalin's invasion, and the United States coming to their aid. In the years since, it has added a massive number of member nations around the globe. What They Want * The morality of the Allied Nations is based around Utilitarianism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism * The current overall goal of the Allied Nations is the improvement of the human standard of living. The smaller goals to achieve this are, in order of importance and overall support, self-preservation, the destruction of hostile and oppressive powers, the spread of democracy, the elimination of disease, the elimination of discrimination, the elimination of poverty, and enviromentalism. In order to achieve these goals, they have further sub-objectives of increasing worldwide political unity, educating the populance, adding to scientific knowledge, and building an effective extranational military force capable of enforcing all of the above. * The Allies are highly idealist; they actually believe that not only are their goals possible, but that they are on the road to achieving them. * The Allies rate their progress towards their goals entirely in objective terms; how long is the human life expectancy? When polled, how many people are satified with their government? How educated are the people here? They see no room for personal anecdotes, and if it improves things, they will do it regardless of what anyone thinks. As an organisation, they don't know how to check their privilege, and will try to do what's best for somebody without ever asking what people actually want. This is their cardinal sin, and negative portrayals of them should centre on this aspect. * When the Allies were formed, their immediate goal was to defend their territory from the Soviet Union. A less pressing and less universal secondary goal was the elimination of communism. * After the war, the Allied Nations hung together as a means of defence should the Soviets reopen hostilities, and an international forum for peaceful discussion in a manner similar to the UN. They began humanitarian aid programs, peacekeeping, and modernisation efforts in poorer countries as a way of cementing these countries as allies and giving them means to support the Allies. Over time, the success of these programs and their overwhelming popularity lead to the second generation of Allied personnel taking them seriously as actual humanitarian efforts, which lead to the current set of Allied goals. * Even if they are doing something stupid, ignorant, or morally questionable, they are always trying to do good. They should never act out of malice, even in their worst moments. How Much do They Know * For a faction that prides itself on scientific knowledge and of their own intellect, the Allies are one of the most ignorant factions. Thanks to their idealism and their skepticism, they have little patience for robots, cultists, and steam knights. They've got a little bit of Flat-Earth Atheist to them; they haven't picked up on how weird the Red Alert universe is yet and they probably never will. * They don't have enough information on the Order of the Talon or the Cult of the Black Hand to consider either as organisations in their own right. As an organisation, they are essentially unaware of either of them as being anything other than conspiracy theories. Their intelligence agency occasionally hits on more information, but thanks to its lack of organisation, they have thus far been unable to connect the dots, so it's a crapshoot how much information their agents can actually turn up about them; usually somewhere between the public record "Pre-crusade, papal-backed order of knights" and "Possible independent agency using the name and legacy of the same" for the Talon, and even less for the Black Hand * They believe the Electrical Protectorate are little more than escaped, malfunctioning nanites from Imperial labs, and currently consider anything else to be implausible nonsense. * They know the Syndicate have deep criminal ties, but they haven't conclusively proved it enough to justify doing something about it to their own population. They settle for institutionalised dickery instead. They currently believe the Syndicate was responsible for constructing and planting the android Ackerman on behalf of the Japanese. * They don't believe there is anything supernatural about psychic powers; it's just another branch of science. They are dismissive of the idea that it's a direct result of human potential. How the Allies Decide Things * The Allies have a parliament of sorts where officials appointed by the governments of member nations vote on issues that come before the group. There is no single leader or head of state. How Much Power They Have in Member Nations * In theory, they have little direct power. They don't pass laws so much as set policies and define stuff, such as what is or isn't a fundamental human right. * In practice, the popularity of the Allies in most member nations means they have an enormous influence, something they are very aware of. In most Allied countries, a really good way to not get elected next year is to be contrary to an Allied ruling, something politicians are all too aware of. * Additionally, because the Allies have very effective international programs, governments, especially European governments, often directly fund these programs in exchange for their services, especially in health and increasingly in national police forces (Federal level). This gives the Allies additional power within these nations. Nationals especially "plugged in" to the Allied system, such as the UK, often have more Allied programs than Federal ones. ("It's loike the government is joost the taxman and the BBC these days, it is.") * The Allies do consider themselves sole arbiters of international law, however. They've taken to enforcing the law in international waters, policing territorial disputes, dealing with criminals and terrorists that try to flee across boarders, and dealing with international smuggling or drug trafficking. They have an investigative service for this (Interpol) and actual enforcement is a duty of the Peacekeepers. * The Allied intervention into the politics in the United States is considered unprecedented. Many people feel they have overstepped their boundaries, and the Allies themselves are a great deal more nervous about it than they'd like to admit. It went a lot more poorly than anyone could have imagined (they weren't expecting the mass walkout of the legislative branch, for example), which is why things are so out of hand. Science and Technology * Generally speaking, the Allies have the best grasp of science and technology in the setting. * The general idea is that the Allies are on track for their future to look like The Jetsons by the year 2000. Hence all the helicopters, which will one day become flying cars, the food pills, the jetpacks, and so forth. * The Allied scientific advantage comes from being well rounded. Where other factions have single fields where they specialize, Allied sciences are advanced across the board, which allows them to interact these technologies in creative ways for exponential effects. Even where they are weak, they are at least on par with science circa 1969. * Where other factions have already pushed most of their speciality sciences close to the limit, the Allies have not even come close to peaking. Most of the sciences they take advantage of are still young fields and their practical applications limited or experimental. They took the slow and steady route to technological advancement and it's just starting to pay off, as opposed to weaponizing the first unusual phenomenon that comes along like everyone else did. * One of the advantages of their approach is they keep learning whole new fields instead of boxing themselves in. ** For example, they had particle physics, which got them spacewarping, which combined with optics (spectrum tech) got them fusion. Chronotech + spacewarping got them time manipulation. The quantum phsyics and multiverse theory that powers GAP also makes the Chronosphere work. * Recent military pressure has lead to them desperately throwing everything they got at the wall, often just bolting lab equipment to obsolete frames if they'll produce a big enough boom. * Standout areas of Allied strength are physics of all sorts, aerospace sciences, and optics. Their material sciences and computing are sub-par. Category:Lore